Creating a secure SSL template

This document provides instructions on creating a 'secure' HTML template. HTML templates can be added to the software from 'Account Defaults > Manage HTML Wrappers'.

In order for a web page to run securely, two things must be in place:

A valid SSL certificate must be purchased and installed for the required domain.*

All resources such as stylesheets, images and scripts must be called from a secure location.

*Secure certificates already exist for the domains e-activist.com and www.e-activist.com. This means that once your html template is secure, you will be able to use our secure certificate at no additional cost. But if you would like to run a subdomain such as 'action.agoodturn.com' under https (securely), then an additional SSL certificate will be required.

Creating the template

When creating a SSL template, you will need to use the source code of the page that you would like to use as a wrapper for your e-activist actions or donation pages ('view source' in your browser window). Copy and paste the code into Dreamweaver or Notepad in order to start working with the code.

You will need to remove the code responsible for the main content of the page to create a space for dynamic content and adapt the rest of the code.

When deleting the main content of the page from the code, please make sure you delete both opening and closing html tags for selected sections of the code. Missing div tags will cause the code to break. For example:

Note: The Id number used in the URL above can be retrieved from any action's URL in 'Campaigns' > 'Modify'.

[subdomain] – subdomain is www.e-activist.com by default unless you create a dedicated subdomain for your e-activist actions. In such a case, you will need to purchase an SSL certificate for your subdomain.

Stylesheet and javascript files

Find all javascripts and stylesheets by searching for .js and .css.

Download them by opening up the url in a browser window and clicking 'File' > 'Save page as' (or ask your web team to provide you with all necessary files). Note: If there are multiple stylesheets, you can combine all of the styles onto one if you wish - just make sure you copy and paste the code from the stylesheets in the same order as the links to the stylesheets in the template.

Upload all of the files to e-activist.

Change all of the urls using the following protocol: https://www.e-activist.e-activist.com/ea-campaign/action.retrievefile.do?ea_filename=XXXXXXX&ea.client.id=[ID]

Any <base href="http://host/directory/" /> declarations should be removed from the head section of the code.

Default CSS

Default CSS controlling dynamic content needs to be uploaded in 'Libraries > Images and files' and referenced in the code (at the end of the <head> section preferably):

The Id number used in the URL above can be retrieved from any action's URL.

[subdomain] – subdomain is www.e-activist.com by default unless you create a dedicated subdomain for your e-activist actions. In such a case, you will need to purchase an SSL certificate for your subdomain.